Police Debunk Gang Rite Rumors

Anonymous Fliers Cultivate Myth

November 25, 1993|By MATT MURRAY Daily Press

The flier tells a terrifying story:

Gang members drive around with their car lights off. When other motorists flash their lights at the gang members' cars to signal them that their lights aren't on, the gangs take that as a sign to literally put the other drivers' "lights out." They follow and kill the motorists. It's supposed to be a gang initiation rite.

It's also completely false, police locally and across the country said Wednesday.

"I've never heard of anything at all regarding something that extraordinary," said Newport News police Lt. Carl Burt, head of the Crimes Against Persons squad. "I think you may be dealing with an urban myth. We have real crimes that we're investigating. We've got real crimes out there."

Hunter's main concern was that people who read or heard about the myth might commit copycat crimes, transforming the myth into a self-fulfilling prophecy. "It could be a Catch-22," he said.

The myth has made its way across the nation this fall, from Southern California to Washington, D.C., helped along by the fliers like those that recently turned up in Hampton Roads and anonymous faxes sent to offices in several cities.

The claims have been debunked repeatedly in news stories, including articles in The Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report. A wire service story on the rumors appeared in the Daily Press in late September.

The fliers in this area are being handed out in shopping mall parking lots and have been seen in places like Sam's Club. Headed "URGENT!! READ THIS NOW!!", they describe the sinister crime, say it has been reported across the country and add that two families already have fallen victim to the ritual in Chicago and St. Louis.

Totally untrue, both departments said. "It's all false, urban folklore," said a Chicago police spokeswoman. "We thought it had already died out."

"It is nothing but a hoax," said Lt. Steven Mueller, spokesman for St. Louis police.

Each department has fielded dozens of calls about the supposed gang initiation.

Richmond and Norfolk police also dismissed the fliers, despite reports that at least one such incident has occurred in Richmond. "So far as we've been able to tell, it's a phony," said a detective there Wednesday.